


Games of Despair

by AuraTheScribe



Series: Games of Despair [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Intermissions, Meanwhile in the real world, Prologue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 18:29:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1951656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraTheScribe/pseuds/AuraTheScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Junko Enoshima doesn't create SHSL Despair.  Instead, she takes advantage of a vacation day to trap her classmates in various video game worlds with the intent to spread despair by broadcasting their eventual deaths all across Japan.  Now the rest of the Super High School Level Students must claim victory in their various games in order to escape and topple Enoshima's dastardly plot.</p>
<p>No longer being updated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This fic's going to work a bit differently than most. Each character's story is going to take place in its own fic, while this one follows the things that are going on in the real world while the students are stuck in their game worlds. In other words, this fic will basically serve as the prologue as well as containing the intermission chapters that take place between games.
> 
> All right, hopefully everything's sorted out. Please enjoy the story!

It was an unusual day for the third-year class of Hope’s Peak academy. Early that morning, the headmaster had left to take the first and second-year classes on a day-long field trip, and had entrusted the third-years to take care of themselves and not destroy the school while he was gone.

So far, they had been alone for about an hour, and all was well. They had gathered in the cafeteria and were beginning to eat breakfast. They seemed to split into small groups at the various tables where they sat to eat. Mondo and Ishimaru sat with Fujisaki, Leon and Maizono ate with Naegi and Kirigiri, Yamada took a seat next to Celes, who was in the middle of conversing with Junko and Mukuro, Fukawa watched Togami eat his breakfast from afar, and Asahina and Sakura looked on as Hagakure comes to their table with a bizarre-looking blob on his tray.

“Um… Hagakure?” Asahina spoke to the fortune teller. “What’s on your tray?”

“Huh?” Hagakure seemed confused for a brief moment. “Oh yeah, that’s my breakfast.”

“I know that, but what is it?” She looked wary of the brown-gray specimen on his plate, as though it would begin moving of its own accord at any moment.

“Well, bacon and eggs are good together, right?” Hagakure illustrated his explanation with hand motions. “But bacon also goes good with chocolate, and chocolate’s pretty good in oatmeal. I figured that since they all work separately, then putting them all together would make the perfect breakfast. It’s genius, right?” He seemed quite proud of himself, possibly a bit too much.

After being informed of the contents of Hagakure’s plate, Asahina began to feel nauseous. Not just because of the abomination that the fortune teller was going to attempt to eat, but because she couldn’t fathom how anyone could waste perfectly good food like that. In Asahina’s shocked silence, Sakura spoke up instead.

“You must tell us if your creation is actually tasty.”

Hagakure gave a thumbs-up and dug into the abomination. As he chewed his first bite, his enthusiasm noticeably disappeared. His expression changed to a mix of sadness and contemplation. Upon swallowing he gave his verdict.

“It’s the oatmeal.”

Asahina cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“The oatmeal’s the problem. The texture totally ruins everything else, right? I’m gonna go get some more, without the oatmeal this time.” Hagakure scraped what was left on his plate into the trash can and walked back to the kitchen. Asahina looked to Sakura for some commentary on the situation. Sakura only shrugged. She too was at a loss for words.

Meanwhile, Mondo and Ishimaru were engaged in a discussion over the pros and cons of using a motorcycle to patrol the school.

“I’m tellin’ you, a bike would make your job so much easier.” Mondo insisted. “You get a call that someone’s startin’ shit on the other side of the school, and BAM, you’re there in half a minute, tops.”

Ishimaru nodded his head. “You make a good case, brother, but I have been patrolling this academy on foot with no difficulty for many years now. I believe that the phrase is, Don’t mess with success!”

Mondo laughed and slapped Ishimaru on the back, while Ishimaru and Fujisaki joined him in laughter.

Junko cradled her head in her hand as she held a conversation about fashion with Celes. She was only half-paying attention, as her eyes wandered around the room to watch her fellow students. All of them were joking around, having fun, and generally having a pleasant morning, and all of it was just so boring to her. She needed something to happen. Something… despair-inducing. And after three years, she thinks that she may have finally found a way to spread her beloved despair to the rest of the class.

“Hey Celes, can you stay right here? I’ve gotta leave for a bit.” She questioned the gambler. “I have to go get something from my room. I’ll be right back, I swear.”

“It’s no trouble, really.” Celes answered calmly, taking a sip of tea. Junko hopped up and lightly punched Mukuro in the arm.

“Come on, Mukuro. You can help me look.” She pointed at the cafeteria doors with her thumb, hoping that her sister would get the message. Mukuro nodded and followed Junko out of the room, her stiffened posture providing a start contrast to Junko’s informal method of prancing out of the room.

Yamada looked up from his bowl of cheesy grits to comment on the situation. “What do you think is going on with Enoshima Junko-dono?”

Celes coolly turned her gaze to the portly otaku and responded matter-of-factly. “It’s probably nothing important. She most likely just forgot to apply her lip balm before breakfast or something. It wouldn’t be the first time.” Yamada seemed to take this as an acceptable answer, and went back to eating.

Breakfast went on as normal, and the lack of Junko and Mukuro’s presence didn’t really seem to affect anything. However, five minutes after they left, an announcement rang out over the loudspeaker, grabbing the attention of everyone in the cafeteria.

“Attention students. I need everyone to convene in the gymnasium immediately. Attendance is mandatory.” The voice was that of Jin Kirigiri, the headmaster. Everyone was confused for a moment, as his leaving for the day had been well-publicized.

“So, uh… should we go?” Leon asked. The whole situation seemed a bit off to him.

“Of course we must!” Ishimaru proudly proclaimed. “As students, it is our duty to follow the headmaster’s instructions to the letter!” He then promptly marched out the door and headed for the gymnasium.

Mondo was the first to follow him out, with Fujisaki coming right after. Sakura left her protein coffee on the table and headed out the door with Asahina by her side. The others slowly joined the Exodus, with Kirigiri, Naegi, Maizono, Leon, Togami, Fukawa, Celes, and Yamada. Hagakure was the last out the door, as he had been apprehensive about abandoning his bacon-chocolate scrambled eggs, but he ultimately decided that he could get back to his food later, and left with everyone else.

In the gymnasium, there was nothing but a stage with a podium and fourteen confused students standing in front of it. They assumed that the stage was for whatever announcement the headmaster had in store, but they were stumped as to whatever the purpose of this gathering could be.

“So where is the guy?” Mondo complained. “We came, so why ain’t he here to explain himself?”

“Watch it, Mondo!” Asahina hissed. “You don’t wanna get the headmaster mad! This is supposed to be our day off, remember?” Mondo just shrugs in response.

The students began to murmur about the suspicious situation. Amidst the doubt, Ishimaru tried to maintain order. “All right, everyone, I’m sure that this is all part of what the headmaster has planned. Why, I bet he has a big surprise for us! Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up onstage right now!”

Indeed, someone did show up onstage at that point, and they tapped on the microphone to draw everyone’s attention. Everyone covered their ears due to the feedback before looking to the stage to see who had caused that dreadful noise.

Onstage, they saw the familiar form of Junko Enoshima. However, there were two new additions to her wardrobe. The first was a black and white tie with a prohibition symbol on it. The second was a gas mask that obscured her face, but allowed her massive pigtails to flow behind it.

“Enoshima, why are you on the stage?” Naegi cried.

“Fuck that! Why’s she wearing a gas mask?” Leon shouted over the others.

Junko said nothing, she only took a tape recorder out of her pocket and pressed the play button. The recorded message filled the gymnasium.

“Attention students. I need everyone to convene in the gymnasium immediately. Attendance is mandatory.”

The announcement had been a fake. Everyone reacted with varying degrees of shock at the realization. Ishimaru tried to form an objection, but he was too overcome by the deception to verbalize his thoughts. Ultimately, Kirigiri wound up being the one to issue a question about the situation.

“What is this, Enoshima?” She calmly spoke, although the look on her face was one that could be used to interrogate a hardened criminal. “You called us all in here with a recording of my father, but what was the point? What kind of prank are you trying to pull?”

“Oh, this isn’t a prank.” Junko spoke in a playful tone, although the gas mask muffled and distorted her voice, creating a rather eerie effect. “I consider it more of a game, and you’re all going to play with me.”

The whole group was highly unnerved by the way Junko was acting. Confused muttering and horrified stares spread throughout the group. Maizono raised her hand to get Junko’s attention before speaking.

“Um… what kind of a game are you talking about?” Her tone had a noticeable amount of worry in it. Junko noticed that and grinned, although the other students could not see it.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s going to be a fun game.” Junko spoke as though she didn’t have a care in the world. “Unfortunately, I still have to finish setting things up. There are about, oh…” She looked out into the group of confused and concerned students watching her. “… fourteen pieces that aren’t in place yet. Don’t worry, though! I’ll have everything all set up soon, so I just need you guys to sit tight, okay?”

As soon as those last couple words escaped her lips, Junko pulled out two canisters from behind the podium and threw them into the crowd. Once they hit the gym floor, they began to emit a strange gas. The students began to panic and move away from the canisters.

“Let’s get outta here!” Leon screamed.

All fourteen students ran for the gym door, but before they could reach it, another slender figure in a gas mask shut it. Once they reached the door, Mondo and Sakura attempted to break it down. Unfortunately for them, the figure on the other side of the door had laid a steel pipe between the handles, and even the combined strength of the two strongest students in class could not break it down.

It didn’t take very long for the gas to reach the panicking students. Once the fumes got to them, they began to feel increasingly lightheaded, as though they hadn’t slept for days. Fujisaki was the first to fall to the gas, collapsing to the floor. The others began to fall one by one until only Sakura remained. As she felt her strength being sapped, she tried valiantly to push through the sealed-off door. This attempt was even more futile than her earlier attempt to break it down, and the door continued to hold firm.

Finally, she could no longer keep fighting the effects of the gas. Her legs gave out on her, and she fell to her knees before slumping to the side in front of the gym door. Even the strongest of all the Super High School Level students had been felled by the unexpected attack.

Junko stepped off the stage and sauntered over to the door. As she passed by her unconscious classmates, she couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. To see them all go down so easily really gave her a warm fuzzy feeling deep down. Thinking about the despair they must have felt as they succumbed to the gas was only a bonus to her.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t afford to stand around admiring her handiwork. She still had a plan to carry out. She knocked on the door and spoke to her accomplice on the other side.

“Hey Mukuro! Unblock the door, you idiot! We’ve got work to do and bodies to haul!”

END PROLOGUE


	2. Intermission #1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here's the first intermission chapter. It's basically just Junko explaining the machinations behind the story, but hopefully it gives you a feel for what future intermissions will be like.

Ikusaba and Enoshima stood in the center of a large room that resembled some sort of laboratory. The front of the room was dominated by a large control panel, with numerous screens above the controls. The sides of the room included sixteen identical pods, eight on the left, eight on the right. At the moment, fourteen of these pods were occupied by the unconscious bodies of their classmates. Finally, at the very back of the room, there were two pods similar to the ones that lined the sides of the room. The only difference was that the two pods at the back were connected by a series of pipes and wires.

Ikusaba raised an eyebrow at the mass of machinery in front of her. “Sister, do you think that you can tell me about your plan now? You’ve been oddly secretive about it.”

“Hmm…” Enoshima put a finger to her lips. “I suppose I can let you know. It’s not like anyone’s going to do anything about it now!” She let out a hearty laugh as she hopped up to the control panels. Ikusaba resisted the urge to roll her eyes and placed her full attention on her sister.

“See sis, ever since we started at this school, I’ve had to hear about hope day in and day out. Hope this, hope that, hope everything! And you know what? I couldn’t stand it!” Enoshima flailed her arms about dramatically, indicating a change to a more manic persona. “Everything they’ve said, it’s just wrong, wrong, wrong! They called us the ‘Students of Hope’. Ha! What a laugh. Little did they know that they had accepted one into their ranks that would show them the true power of despair!”

She brought her hands to her chest as her voice took on a much softer, more emotional tone, akin to that of the lead of a romantic drama. “Oh sweet, sweet despair, the force that fuels my very being. How could I ever live without you?” Ikusaba was starting to feel secondhand embarrassment for her sister, even though they were the only two that were capable of seeing what Enoshima was doing.

“That’s nice, sister, but you still haven’t explained the plan.”

Enoshima jumped back down to the floor and grabbed Ikusaba on the shoulder, fingernails digging into the fabric of her blazer. “Oh my dear, sweet, stupid sister. How very impatient you are. I was just about to get to that part.” She held out her hand and gestured to the pods. “In these pods lay our beloved classmates. All throughout high school, they’ve believed that they could use their friendship, their teamwork, their hope…” She practically spat out the last word. “They believed that those traits could help them overcome their problems. Now, thanks to their naivety, I figured out the perfect way to spread my despair to them.”

She stood in a proud pose as she held out her arms in a wide arc. “This is a place that I discovered while reading about the academy. They call it the Ultimate Game Room. This place is the result of the studies from various Super High School Level students. Scientists, programmers, electricians, mechanics, and, of course, gamers. All of their work has been combined to form a prototype for the perfect virtual reality video game.” She hopped into a chair at the control panel while Ikusaba followed her in hopes of getting a better look.

“With this control panel, I choose their fate.” Enoshima’s voice was now stern and serious, much like a harsh businesswoman. “There are hundreds of games at my disposal, and I can choose the ones that will give them the most despair.” She turned her attention to the screen directly in front of her and concentrated intently, typing away at a keyboard and hitting buttons and switches occasionally. “Now that that’s completed, I can get to fine-tuning the system.”

Ikusaba cocked her head in confusion. “What do you mean by ‘fine-tuning’?”

Enoshima answered without looking away from the screen. “The pods are designed to continually keep the body nourished while the player is in the game in order to prevent dehydration or malnutrition. That part’s fine, because I want them to be around to feel as much despair as possible.” The corners of her lips turned sharply downward as she came to the next part of her explanation. “However, that is not the part that I have to deal with. That would be the failsafe.”

Ikusaba looked at her sister with an expression that betrayed the slightest hint of worry. “Failsafe? What failsafe are you referring to?”

Enoshima continued to fiddle with the machine as she spoke. “There is a failsafe in the system that is designed to automatically eject the player and bring them back to reality when they die. According to what I’ve ready, it actually works. I have to say, it’s pretty impressive. However, that’s not exactly what I had in mind for our dear classmates.” She cracked a smile and took on a more playful tone of voice. “See, now I’m playing with the code to turn off the failsafe, so if anyone dies in the game, then not only will they not wake up, but the life-support system for their pod will shut down, killing them for real!”

Ikusaba was shocked by her sister’s words, but was able to hide it behind her stoic expression. “So you’re making the games deadly?”

“Oh, it’s much more than that!” Enoshima hit a few more keys before pressing a botton and pushing her chair away from the control panel. “I made a few changes to the code. Now, if one person dies, then all of the pods will be locked into the game states, so even if the others win, their pods’ life support systems will shut down, killing them in spite of their success!” She spun around in her chair while cackling wildly.

“So let me get this straight.” Ikusaba did her best to sum up her sister’s ramblings. “In order for them to escape, every single one of them has to win their game. Is that right?”

“Yep! But I wouldn’t worry too much about that.” Enoshima slowly stopped spinning. “These games are no cakewalk, and I’ve got a few aces in the hole to keep them from winning this so easily.” She smiled wide as she continued. “Plus, since they’re all isolated from each other, they can’t use their friendship that they love so much! I’d like to see those hope freaks win without that!”

At that point, Enoshima scooted her chair over to a microphone sticking out of the control panel. “Shh. Hey Mukuro, watch this.” She then pushed a button next to the microphone and spoke in the deepest voice she could muster.

“Your only release… is victory.”

She hit the button again and pushed her chair away again, laughing all the while. As she did this, Ikusaba was becoming increasingly confused by her sister’s bizarre behavior. “Okay… could you please explain the purpose of that?”

Enozhima continued to laugh. “Oh, I just did that to fuck with their heads! I’m already in the driver’s seat, so I decided to have a little fun! Then again, I wouldn’t expect a sad sack like you to know anything about that!”

Ikusaba sighed. There really was no reasoning with her sister. “Still, I have one more question. The headmaster will be returning with the rest of the students in a couple of hours at the latest. How do you expect to not get caught?”

Enoshima chuckled. “Elementary, my dear sister. Just watch this.” She pulled a small remote control out from the breast pocket of her uniform and hit a button on it. All of a sudden, a loud alarm began to sound through the school. Ikusaba immediately went into full alert and got into a combat stance. Meanwhile, Enoshima laughed and pressed a few buttons on the control panel, bringing up feeds from the Hope’s Peak security cameras onto the various screens.

Ikusaba looked at the feeds and couldn’t believe her eyes. The gates, doors, and windows surrounding Hope’s Peak Academy were being covered by thick sheets of metal. From the looks of it, someone could drive a truck straight into the gate without even scratching the blockade.

Enoshima seemed very pleased with herself. “It was a project started by a Super High School Level Survivalist. It’s meant to keep the school safe in case of danger. I bet the headmaster never thought that it would be used like this.” She chuckled to herself. At that point, Enoshima’s demeanor changed once again. She now had a wide grin that one would expect to see on a homicidal maniac. Her voice was low and dangerous as she activated the pods and shouted triumphantly.

“Let the games begin!”


End file.
